Ballerina who inspired so many Stephanie Selby dies at 57


Stephanie Selby, the high-profile subject of “A Very Young Dancer,” who inspired future ballerinas and future dance stars, but vanished from the world of ballet, has died. February 3 Cody was 56 in Wyo.

A cousin, Howell Howard, said it was because of complications from an obvious attempt to end his life.

At the age of 10, Miss Selby was living the dream of many aspiring dancers, taking classes at the School of American Ballet in Manhattan, the prestigious ballet academy founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, and the training ground of Balanchine’s New York City Ballet.

In 1975, photographer Jill Krementz, known for taking pictures of famous authors and writing children’s books, photographed by herself, visited the school. She felt that she had stepped into a Degas painting and immediately realized that she wanted to create a book. She said she watched the audition in an interview, and when Stephanie was selected for the lead role of Marie in “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” she realized that Miss Krementz was fascinating about her subject and she.

He followed Stephanie for a year and produced a rare, detailed behind-the-scenes portrait of a young dancer’s life. It was decades before reality television or Instagram unraveled the mystery of such private spaces.

Ms. Krementz captured Ms. Selby in routine maneuvers such as warm-up exercises at the bar and dream-fulfilling moments, such as dancing as Marie on stage at Lincoln Center.

“A Very Young Dancer” (1976) entered The New York Times bestseller list. Fan letters poured in. Ms. Selby appeared on the “Today” program and the one hour “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” Christmas special. And she sparked the imaginations of other young dancers.

“I remember carefully studying every word in the book, and especially every photograph.” Dena AbergelReading it when he was 7 years old, he remembered it by e-mail. “I completely identified with Stephanie and hoped to one day live in her ballet world.” She trained at the American Ballet School, became a dancer with the New York City Ballet, and had a number of roles there. She now serves as the children’s ballet master for the company, she.

But as Miss Selby was giving aspiring ballerinas hope that they too could reach the top, her own dance career came to an abrupt end.

Despite the joy he found in dancing, he wasn’t always in love with the dance life. He found the training boring. She suffered from frequent headaches, had excessive absences without excuse, and made rude gestures towards teachers she felt were pushing her too hard. Star return on stage with City Ballet meant nothing in class. The summer before Stephanie turned 13, school asked her to withdraw. She was devastated.

It would be humiliating to admit it was rejected. Stephanie wasn’t just another young woman who had decided that the bootcamp-like demands of dance were not for her; she was the heroine of a beloved book that took her to unimaginable heights.

With her mother’s support, she decided to tell people she was quitting, rather than announcing her rejection. He said he wanted to go to university; dancing would only be a hindrance.

That was the story he’d been telling for decades, until a Times reporter followed him in Wyoming in 2011. wrote an article about his rejection. “Stephanie admits that whatever her relationship to ballet and the book may have been, she may have had troubles in her life,” the article states, “but she says that her experience as a child undoubtedly contributed to her later life’s depression.”

Stephanie Mary Selby was born on October 14, 1965 in Manhattan. Fritz’s father, Frederick, was an investment banker and adventurer. Her mother Linn (Howard) Selby, who had a training in modern dance, continued. family tradition annual upload Neapolitan nursery and Christmas The tree in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Stephanie’s parents divorced when she and her older siblings Andrea and Christopher were very young. All four of them get rid of it.

The family lived on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and spent the summers on a family ranch in Cody, northwest Wyoming, where Stephanie rode horses and had fun outdoors.

She fell in love with ballet early in Manhattan and auditioned after her older sister to the School of American Ballet and successfully auditioned at age 8. Stephanie was intensely beautiful with her long chestnut hair, Andrea Selby said in an interview: “She shone. from your soul.”

Written by Ms. Krementz with Stephanie’s voice, “A Very Young Dancer” provides a fluid account of what it feels like to be in Stephanie’s ballet slippers, accompanied by over 100 pages of black and white photographs. They include pictures of her work with “Mr.” B.,” as he and others around him said. balancewho teaches you how to faint in bed without hurting yourself.

“She became famous very quickly,” her older sister said. “Every kid had this book, everywhere we went, every teacher at school, our friends’ parents, everybody thought she was going to be a ballet dancer when she grew up.”

Hardly anyone realized that Mrs. Selby was struggling inside.

“When I wrote the book about Stephanie, there were thousands of 10-year-old girls who could only dream of a life like hers,” Ms Krementz said in an email. “Neither they nor I imagined him fighting the demons that would haunt him for the rest of his life.”

When Miss Selby dropped out of ballet school, she returned to her classes at the all-girl Sacred Heart Convent before attending Wesleyan University. She graduated from the religion department in 1989.

While trying to cope with her depression, she was given various medications and sought professional psychiatric help for a while.

He had always loved animals, especially horses, and worked briefly as an equestrian urban park ranger in New York. He later lived in a monastery in Connecticut, where he milked cows, learned Latin, drove a tractor, prayed, and meditated.

In the late 1990s she moved to Cambridge, Mass., where she worked with the homeless and people in crisis. “There was a burden he was born with – depression,” his sister said. “He was having a hard time living his life on the terms of life. But she made it her mission to help the suffering.”

He moved to Wyoming full-time in 2007 to oversee a house his mother was building. While in a Bible study group, she met John DePierro, whom she married. He worked as a cook, builder, taxidermist and plumber and worked in a flower shop. They later divorced.

While living in Cody, he found work as a cook, guide, and assistant with a few packages of travel gear. He worked for a time in healthcare and the energy industry conglomerate Halliburton in nearby Powell, Wyo, and volunteered at a Native American reservation near Cody, helping children with crafts and teaching Bible school lessons.

He was also an active member of Streams of Life, a small evangelical church in Cody. Pete, an Australian shepherd dog who was his therapy friend, was always nearby, either waiting for him outside the church or sneaking in to keep an eye on him. Pete was sick and was recently grounded, the church’s pastor, Ron Kingston, said in an interview.

Despite being a long way from Lincoln Center, she still loved to dance, albeit in a less disciplined fashion than when she was a student. Pastor Kingston said he would stand up from time to time during church services and move to the music in a free-form style.

“It happened spontaneously,” he said. “He stirred his emotions and was free.”

If you are having suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the United States. 800-273-8255 (TALK) or go SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources For a list of additional resources. To go here For sources outside the United States.



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